Ok, I know I haven't been posting much on here lately, but, I swear, I have a reason.

I am not going to go into alot of detail on this, as it is a public board, and I would hate to get into trouble at work over making comments on an "internal" situation on a public board, but in a nutshell, right now, it's not fun to be me, or one of my co workers.

Essentially, the contract between my union and my company ran out 4.5 years ago. In that 4.5 years there has been very little in the way of negotiating or bargaining on a new one. It has mostly been a series of legal battles between the union and the company. In Jan of 2004, the company made a contract offer to the union which the union did not deem worthy of presenting to us. Because the company presenting it directly to us is legally interfering with a trade union, we did not hear about it until this past may, when the company instituted "soft lockout measures" to break the communications ban. Since then, things have gone downhill. There are some indeed serious issues with the contract, and the company will not negotiate on it at all. At the end of June, they announced as of July 22, they were arbitrarily applying the contract. Since they applied to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to do this as a lockout measure, since July 21, I have been off work and on the picket lines, as working under this is implicit acceptance of this contract.

So now, I have been scrambling, trying to find a temporary job to help pay the bills for the duration of this, which looks to be a long one, and I haven't had much time for hanging out online and such.

6Comments

I would like to think on large "friends" we can vent about any of our concerns. Glad to see you have so much support. I don't think I would want to be part of a union. Our road patrol division went union about a year and a half or two ago and they've had more problems than not. They're trying to offer it to communications, but right now I'm very happy in my position and work environment. I hope all goes well for you - - all of you having to negotiate your work contracts !

I hear you, Dee. I've had four jobs relocated away from me in the last eight years. Hard to get anything going, you know? There is an African proverb that says, "When the elephants fight, the grass gets trampled." As in, when the union and company can't get it together, you and others get hurt. Keep your head up and see what you can learn in the meantime, the roller coaster will go back up soon.